Reminder: LHC lights off Sept 10th

Ender · Post by **Ender** » 2008-09-09 08:38pm

Woohoo, go science. For 6.4 billion Euros You guys better find something cool, even if it isn't the Higgs Boson. I'd like to take this opportunity to say

WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!

So that in the unlikely event that every expert across the globe is wrong and things go boom I didn't miss my last chance to be right. Now then:

Commence Primary Ignition.

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2008-09-09 09:12pm

They had better post a youtube vid of the startup and they had BETTER say that, Ender, otherwise I'm coming for YOU.

That said, I'm positively Giddy because even if we are all killed by it, we'll have the coolest "How I died" stories to tell around the lake.

me: "How did you die?"
other guy: "Plane crash."
Me: "Ouch. That sucks."
Other guy: "You?"
Me: "Fell in a black hole"

Bluewolf · Post by **Bluewolf** » 2008-09-09 09:21pm

Whats the worst that could happen. NOTHING will go wrong.

Post by **Broomstick** » 2008-09-09 09:45pm

Look at the bright side - if they fire it up tomorrow and the world collapses into a black hole at least we won't have to put up with the otherwise inevitable 9/11 wanking this year.

Invictus ChiKen · Post by **Invictus ChiKen** » 2008-09-09 10:26pm

So instead every year we shall have 9/10 wanking if this thing only takes out Europe. I can see it now. 9/10! 9/11! RAR SCIENCE AND FOREIGNERS ARE TEH EVIL!

In all seriousness this is going to be so cool! I am hoping the find the Higgs Boson the legendary GOD PARTICLE! Oh that will be so sweet!

Fire Fly · Post by **Fire Fly** » 2008-09-10 12:16am

Several physicists at my university are placing bets on what's going to be found or not found, as much as $1000 USD. I've got my fingers crossed for the Higgs Boson.

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2008-09-10 01:02am

Broomstick wrote:Look at the bright side - if they fire it up tomorrow and the world collapses into a black hole at least we won't have to put up with the otherwise inevitable 9/11 wanking this year.

Palin/McCain will never be elected.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2008-09-10 03:07am

Big Bang Day. Professor Hawking was going to have an end of the world party, but knew the media wouldn't get the joke.

I just hope the Arrowhead Project goes without a hitch. How's the one at Black Mesa going?

Zablorg · Post by **Zablorg** » 2008-09-10 03:16am

Admiral Valdemar wrote: I just hope the Arrowhead Project goes without a hitch. How's the one at Black Mesa going?

Well, the administrator says it's going wonderfully.

I hope they find out what quarks are made of, if they are made of anything. Or have they done that already?

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2008-09-10 03:59am

I'm not too concerned. The people running the experiment look like very serious individuals who totally don't have too much time on their hands.

For those interested, it's possible to help out LHC by contributing CPU time.

Laughing Mechanicus · Post by **Laughing Mechanicus** » 2008-09-10 04:57am

At 9:24 am (BST) the beam completed its first complete journey around the tunnel.

It seems it has gone much more smoothly than expected, there is even talk of them starting a beam in the opposite direction by the end of the day.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2008-09-10 05:15am

Where's my black hole Apocalypse? Now I'm going to have to pay for that panini I ordered for lunch.

Raxmei · Post by **Raxmei** » 2008-09-10 05:39am

I for one will be paying close attention to the Internation Earth Destruction Advisory Board's Current Earth Destruction Status report.

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2008-09-10 06:27am

Raxmei wrote:I for one will be paying close attention to the Internation Earth Destruction Advisory Board's Current Earth Destruction Status report.

I think yours is broken. Mine is still green

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2008-09-10 06:31am

wautd wrote:
Raxmei wrote:I for one will be paying close attention to the Internation Earth Destruction Advisory Board's Current Earth Destruction Status report.

I think yours is broken. Mine is still green

Maybe because yours is a static image?

PeZook · Post by **PeZook** » 2008-09-10 07:35am

Isn't the DOOM COLLISION supposed to happen in, like, a year from now?

2009 is gonna be a great year for science, but it will also activate a lot of kook bullfuckery. The Lunar Reconeissance Orbiter will bring us really great photos of our satellite, and the LHC will smash things into smaller things. Both events will of course bring out various conspiracy theorists, kooks and anti-intellectualists screaming about The Apocalypse

Ender · Post by **Ender** » 2008-09-10 08:29am

PeZook wrote:Isn't the DOOM COLLISION supposed to happen in, like, a year from now?

What do you think CERN scientists are, some Republic serial villain? Do you really think they would tell you if there were any chance for you to stop them?

The beams collided 35 minutes ago.

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2008-09-10 08:36am

This morning, scientists at the Large Hadron Collider beneath the French-Swiss border fired LHC device for the first time. Regrettably, the Earth Advisory Board reports that Earth was destroyed by this event at 7:35:05am Coordinated Universal Time. http://qntm.org/?board

Not really. Daily Telegraph

Large Hadron Collider: subatomic particles to travel on second circuit

Last Updated: 10:01am BST 10/09/2008

Scientists working on the most powerful particle accelerator ever built have successfully sent subatomic particles on one circuit of the Large Hadron Collider and are now preparing to send them on a second circuit, in the opposite direction.

The first test, at 9.30 am local time (8.30 am British Summer Time), 300 feet below the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, fired a beam of protons all the way around a 17-mile tunnel.

The team was holding its breath in the countdown to the switch-on after a series of technical hitches, including problems with the cooling system.

The clockwise test went smoothly, and now scientists plan to send the beam counterclockwise.

Eventually two beams will be fired in opposite directions with the aim of recreating conditions a split second after the big bang, which scientists theorize was the massive explosion that created the universe.

The £5 billion machine has been described as a racetrack around which two streams of protons - building blocks of matter - run in opposite directions before smashing into one another.

Reaching 99.99 per cent of the speed of light, each beam will pack as much energy as a Eurostar train travelling at 90 mph.

The flashes from the collisions may help scientists reproduce the conditions that existed during the first moments after the Big Bang at the birth of the universe.

Billed as the world's largest science experiment, the switch-on involved the first stream of subatomic particles - known as Hadrons - being fired into the tunnel, eagerly awaited by 10,000 scientists.

Within an hour they had successfully completed a circuit, signified by two white dots flashing on a computer screen.

The first collisions are expected in around 30 days.

Physicists hope to learn more about the origins of mass, gravity and mysterious dark matter - the "glue" thought to hold the universe together.

But concerns have been voiced - in particular by the German chemist Professor Otto Rossler - that black holes created by the LHC will grow uncontrollably and "eat the planet from the inside".

These claims have been dismissed by leading scientists, including Prof Stephen Hawking of Cambridge University who said that the LHC is "feeble compared with what goes on in the universe. If a disaster was going to happen, it would have happened already."

The LHC will produce beams seven times more energetic than any previous machine, and around 30 times more intense when it reaches its design performance, probably by 2010.

Incidentally, clicky.

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2008-09-10 08:36am

Ah, dammit. Could a mod kindly fix the links?

Tolya · Post by **Tolya** » 2008-09-10 09:47am

Great news! Too bad the "Commence Primary Ignition" petition was signed only by 583 people, effectively drowning this excellent piece of ironic humour in the Sea of Dull.

Dooey Jo · Post by **Dooey Jo** » 2008-09-10 10:01am

I wonder where most of those people came from

Unfortunately, they probably don't even have a big shiny "FIRE" button, but use boring old keyboards. Faking a CPI scene would therefore probably be pretty anti-climactic if it used footage from the actual event, which might have looked something like this. Fire when ready, indeed...

Tolya · Post by **Tolya** » 2008-09-10 11:09am

C'mon Dooey, be serious. Nobody was suggesting a recreation of the CPI scene. But such a remark during the initialization of the LHC would be pretty funny indeed.

PeZook · Post by **PeZook** » 2008-09-10 11:16am

Tolya wrote:C'mon Dooey, be serious. Nobody was suggesting a recreation of the CPI scene. But such a remark during the initialization of the LHC would be pretty funny indeed.

Pretty funny?

Try "Unbelievably awesome"

Crossroads Inc. · Post by **Crossroads Inc.** » 2008-09-10 12:28pm

Found this hysterical "What If" animation of the world beiing swallowed by a Black Hole

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=BXzugu39p ... re=related

Dooey Jo · Post by **Dooey Jo** » 2008-09-10 12:39pm

Tolya wrote:C'mon Dooey, be serious. Nobody was suggesting a recreation of the CPI scene. But such a remark during the initialization of the LHC would be pretty funny indeed.

Well yeah, but since they didn't, our only option is to produce a fake video and put it on Youtube, but it wouldn't be nearly as funny.

StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Reminder: LHC lights off Sept 10th

Reminder: LHC lights off Sept 10th

Large Hadron Collider fired; Earth destroyed at 7:35:05amUTC